I’ve been puppy sitting Lucy, my brothers dog, for a couple days now. And I decided to take her for a walk and do a little bit of exploring. I am going to start running in the mornings, so I needed to scope out my route.
Still a puppy, Lucy isn’t very “good” at going for a walk. She wants to run, and smell, and all sorts of things. So it takes a good bit of effort to keep her on a short leash and keep her walking “with” me. Which was the spark that ignited an adventure.
We started our walk, taking a route I’ve gone before, that would basically just take me around the block. But I decided to go explore down this one road. It lead me to a main road, so I just turned around and was going to go back the way I came. But Lucy and I missed our turn.
There were so many exciting things to smell and other dogs who wanted to talk to Lucy, I completely missed my turn. And when I realized this I took out my phone. And there it was, starring right at me… 2% battery! Quite the “OH SHIT” moment for me. Had my phone been charged, I would have just asked google to navigate home, piece of cake.
So I just turned around and started walking down the streets I thought could be my turn. This idea would have worked just fine, but it was getting dark. In fact I probably turned onto my street and turned back around deciding it was not the way I came, which it wasn’t.
After doing this 3 times, it was getting dark. To top it off, I had worn my good moccasins by accident. These things are not great walking shoes. By now I was getting concerned, this wasn’t the little adventure I had planned. But I just kept going. I knew I wasn’t very far from where I wanted to be.
On the fourth road I turned into to check, I was starting to loose confidence. I was thinking about how I would get some help. Walk up to a house, or maybe wave at a car. Yikes! But I was finally where I wanted to be, even though I did not know that for sure.
As I was trying to find the road I needed to turn onto, while considering what house might be the best to try and approach, Lucy started trying to lead. After I thought about it for a second, if I was in the right place she may very well know were to go. She wanted to turn down a road, one that I was hoping was the road I wanted. She seemed pretty sure of herself, so I let her lead.
After just a minute, I could tell were we were. It was the road I had hoped. The short little stretch of road right before we turn into my road. As we got a bit closer I could see my solar lights by the driveway. And the adventure was over. And wow I love Lucy!
We gained some good x on this adventure. I have a better mental map of my neighborhood. Lucy got some practice walking “with” me, instead of doing her own thing. AND she helped me find my way back in the dark.
One thing this adventure illustrates is my ability to function in the unknown. This is a concept I have thought about off and on. My life is full of the unknown. And I am forced to deal with this every day. Imagine how well things would have gone if I had panicked or got upset. And the “unknown” is naturally a scary thing for all animals. Successfully dealing with the unknown is a very rewarding ability. One that is a requirement for my life.
The lessons learned are pretty simple though. Make sure my phone is charged! All of my problems would have been solved by having a charged phone. Also I should have a battery pack and always bring my cane.